Freak Camp by Laura Rye

Author:Laura Rye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Laura Rye Books

Late spring in Freak Camp was almost tolerable, especially when compared to the imminent scorching summer, but it was still hot enough to burn the skin off a vampire and leave everyone else heat sick and sunburned.

Jake always made sure that they at least had a piece of shade, whether because he didn’t like the heat or because he cared—Tobias wrestled sometimes with which it could be, Becca’s voice and his own instincts warring with each other. Sometimes, being Sally Dixon’s son, he could even talk their way into one of the air-conditioned buildings.

This visit, Jake had convinced the people in Administration to let them through, and he and Tobias sat in an out-of-the-way corner under a stairwell, against the cool plaster of the wall, and shared what Tobias was sure was the biggest meal he had eaten in his entire life.

“Dad’ll be busy for hours,” Jake said. “No need to rush, Toby. We’ve got lots of time today.”

He hadn’t believed it when Jake kept pulling food out of his bag. Two sub sandwiches, three apples, a huge bag of chips and two small, squashed cupcakes in plastic wrapping. Tobias nearly shook from the effort not to snatch some of that food and shove it into his mouth before someone—monster or guard—took it away.

Only the fact that he was with Jake—and Jake looked happy and relaxed, which he hadn’t always the last few visits—kept Tobias from acting like a filthy, grabby monster. Tobias knew that Jake would give him some of that bounty, because Jake had never been cruel enough to show him food and not allow him to eat it.

Jake beamed at him as he shook out the bag. “Dig in. I’m just glad they give me less shit about bringing in food these days.”

Cautiously, still not quite believing the feast before him, Tobias reached for a sandwich.

By the time Jake had finished his sandwich and opened up the bag of chips, Tobias’s anxiety had ebbed. He still tried to eat slowly—too much food at once, good food, could come back up if he scarfed it, and Tobias didn’t want to lose any of the wonderful food that Jake had brought him—but he was smiling and able to laugh at the stories Jake told around his mouthful of chips.

He had been afraid, sometimes, on Jake’s recent visits. Not because he was afraid that Jake would hurt him—nothing Jake did could possibly hurt—but because Jake was sometimes tense, distracted, and unhappy. Tobias assumed it had something to do with his father, or maybe the real world, but Tobias always had a nagging fear that it was his fault and that someday Jake would stop coming because of something Tobias had done without ever knowing what it was.

But not today. Today Jake smiled and pushed chips in his face and grinned when he made jokes so that Tobias could be sure that he should laugh.

“Sub taste all right?” Jake asked. “I wasn’t sure what kind to get, so I went with everything.

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